Happy Release Day!

Wolf of the Northern Star

Ghost, once known as the cub Luca, is finally home. Back among his kind and learning what it means to be both a man and a shaman, Ghost battles the expectations of his people, his family, and the pressures of a society that is both foreign and familiar. His power is greater than any seen before, dwarfing that of even the legendary Shaman Gray Shadow—and his union with Kane places him in the center of a controversy that rattles wolfkin society around the world.

Kane, greater alpha and Heir to Black Pine Clan, has finally defeated the traitor and murderer that destroyed the heart of Black Pine years before. Freed at last from guilt and pain, Kane has a new enemy to face: his own people. Placed on trial for violation of Law and blasphemy, Kane will have to fight to the death to preserve his bond with Ghost and keep his mate and people safe.

The soulbond between Ghost and Kane is forged by the creator and Goddess of the wolfkin. Usually, a sacred and treasured union that honors the pair and their clans, this soulbond is seen not as a gift, but a threat to eons of tradition and Clan Law.

The union of a Shaman and Alpha is anathema—but how to reconcile that belief when it is the wolfkin Goddess who forged it? Can Ghost and Kane save themselves, preserve their bond, and find a new future when the laws of the ancient past threaten to tear them apart?

Exclusive Excerpt:

CAIUS OPENED the door, the wind howling and sharp as it tore through his clothes. The evening sun was long hidden behind the deep gray clouds, twilight losing its grip as the hour sped toward full darkness. He could see, the gifts of his kind allowing him to navigate where humans would be handicapped by the deepening shadows.

He walked down the path, the White Wolf’s cabin soon disappearing at his back as he wound his way along the mountainside, taking the route to the visitors’ cabins further back among the trees. Ice crackled under his feet, his boots snapping the thin layers covering the gravel and stones. Any wolfkin in the area would hear him coming. Hiding his approach to where his new-found grandson and Caius’ Heir were staying was impossible once he took the final bend in the path to the cabins. There were several cabins along this path, some as old as the park itself, some far older than even that. He reached the blown out and blackened shell of one cabin, and he paused for a second, taking in the scent of sulfur and soot. This was the place bombed last week by one of the traitors at his son’s insistence. Claire, daughter of Andromeda, nearly killed Caius’ son, Heir, grandson, his Clan’s Speaker, and his Heir’s First Beta. All for the unrequited love of another of Caius’s worthless sons.

Caius snorted in displeasure, and took the path deeper into the snow-covered trees. Spring was only a few weeks away, but winter in Maine was unrelenting, the temperatures hovering below freezing and snow coming at least once a day. The last heavy storm happened just hours before Caius and his fellow Greater Clan Leader, Heromindes, arrived in Baxter last week. It was that same storm that covered the attack of Roman’s misfit band of traitors and Simon Remus’ group of mercenaries. Luckily Kane, his Heir, had his tactical team already in place in Baxter, and they defeated the humans at the park gates. Andromeda easily and quickly took out Roman, Caius’ son and the great traitor they’d been searching for for twenty years, and Luca… Ghost…took care of the exiled traitors, deep in the woods.

Caius and Heromindes, along with Hero’s cousin Gabriel, under the watchful eye of Andromeda, had gone the evening after the battles to see the killing ground in the woods. Gabriel recounted, in halting words and averted eyes, the tale of how they’d been ambushed by unknown wolves, and Luca, who now went by Ghost, killed the ambushers in a storm of lightning that came from the air around them. Gabe told them all, disbelief and some fear building in their expressions, how the lightning avoided touching Gabe and Gerald, instead dancing around and through the attackers. Burnt and decimated corpses littering the ground gave credence to Gabe’s tale, the scorched earth and fire-damaged trees were an indicator of just how much power was unleashed. An astronomical amount of shamanic magic had left several wolfkin nothing but ashes, charred flesh and bones, in a matter of seconds.

Caius stopped, just in view now of the cabin where Kane and Ghost had been holed up the last few days. Ghost flat-out refused to allow Kane to remain under guard in the cellars of Andromeda’s cabin where Roman was currently being held, and Caius privately agreed. Whatever discontent lay in his heart towards his oh-so-perfect heir, Caius did not believe that Kane forced a bonding upon Ghost. Their gift, the one they shared, did not work on shamans. And regardless of what Heromindes thought, no matter of proper training or technique was responsible for the shamans’ immunity to the Voice; that was a gift they were born with, that flowered when they came into their roles as keepers of the faith and the magics of their kind. Kane was innocent of using the Voice to force Ghost into a bonding, and Caius had seen a few soulbonds in his long life. He knew the difference between a regular mating bond, a forced bond, and the even rarer soulbond.

The most recent soulbond he saw was that between his late daughter, Marla, and the long-missing son of Gray Shadow, Josiah.

Just thinking about Marla and Gray Shadow in the same thought was enough to make his heart pound painfully, his eyes shutting as he clenched his fists and fought back the tears. His daughter was dead. And Gray Shadow…. his heart was long dead, too, no matter how strongly it beat in his chest.

He blinked back tears, refusing to give into the pain, but what he saw when he looked again at the cabin was enough to stagger him.

The pair silhouetted in the big window in front of the cabin made his heart pound even harder. The large alpha was curled around the smaller shaman protectively, care and affection in every long line of Kane’s body. Pain tore at Caius, the image enough to pull up long-denied memories of another place and time, of a hidden glen in the Old World, where two young male wolfkin first found love of their own.

A love that back then meant death. And it was a similar love that now threatened the life of his Heir and his grandson.